Shed Geek Podcast

Rebuilding Hope After Disaster: Jeremy Barker's Journey from Addiction to Advocacy Pt 1

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 5 • Episode 25

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What happens when a one-handed tile expert with a powerful redemption story joins forces with a shed industry leader during a natural disaster? Something extraordinary.

Jeremy Barker introduces himself as "the Billy Graham of tile," but his journey goes far deeper than his professional expertise. After losing his left hand at 23 in a tragic chop saw accident, Jeremy faced a choice: surrender to limitation or embrace a new path forward. Choosing the latter, he built a reputation as a premier educator and advocate in the tile industry, creating the Carolina Tile Posse and partnering with his wife in their company Bathmatic Custom Tile and Shower.

But Jeremy's most profound battle wasn't with physical disability—it was with addiction. For over a decade, crystal meth controlled his life, keeping him from being present for his family despite maintaining financial stability. His October 2020 sobriety marked a turning point that would eventually position him perfectly for disaster relief work.

When devastating floods hit their region, Jeremy and Sam found themselves drawn together by a shared conviction: everyone deserves help, regardless of their past or present circumstances. Their partnership has delivered over 600 emergency shelters to storm victims, often facing criticism from those who question whether people with troubled histories "deserve" assistance.

The conversation takes us to Carson's Farm, where Jeremy established a base for building emergency housing, starting with modest goals before connecting with Sam's operation. Together, they've not only provided shelter but have confronted abuse, sex trafficking, and the exploitation that often follows disasters. Their work has virtually eliminated homelessness in communities where they've focused their efforts.

This episode challenges listeners to reconsider who deserves second chances and reminds us that those who have experienced profound struggles often become the most effective advocates for others in crisis. Can someone with a troubled past become an instrument of hope? Jeremy and Sam answer with a resounding yes.

Tune in next week for the conclusion of this powerful two-part conversation about redemption, purpose, and the transformative power of compassion in disaster's wake.

For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.

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To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.

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Sam:

All right guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast, Friday fun day, Samb assador style, with your host, Sam Byler. And man, I am so excited and honored to be here tonight. Seems like I say that every week because I get great guests. It's just everybody that I get to talk to I get excited about it. We've had some people on here that we didn't know who they were, we didn't know what their service was or what they were doing. But I'm here to tell you guys that tonight I have a new friend on here. He's not been around us real long, but I want to tell you something. This dude has wiggled his way inside my head and heart faster than anybody I've ever seen before. Jeremy Barker, how in the world are you doing tonight?

Jeremy:

I'm good, Sam. Thanks for having me. I'm blessed to be here.

Sam:

So, we were just talking a little bit ago and I said, man, I got to get this thing kicked off because you're already going into stuff. I want to hear that. I want people to hear about what we're doing here. So, just as just as part of an introductory, you are very similar to what I am in the shed industry, in the tile industry. You travel a lot, you're well known, you got some good products out there. Your wife's involved with you. Just give me a brief rundown of what you do.

Jeremy:

Well, they call me the Billy Graham of tile here in the South and I went into the tile industry about 10, 12 years ago and then I got heavy involved in education and then I got an opportunity to sit on boards of directors with manufacturers and being ambassadors for manufacturers of different products to build tile showers and waterproofing and all that good stuff. And, uh, as you can see in this background, this is my brand, Illuminiche. This is a patented product shower niche with LED lighting system, and I'm a partner in this business and one of the original founders of it, and I traveled 46 cities last year spreading the word and kind of, you know, training and advocating for the industry and people to learn the trade and do it the right way and to have an industry that's involved. Advocating for the industry and people to learn the trade and do it the right way.

Jeremy:

And to have an industry that's involved. So, I created what you call the Carolina Tile Posse, which is a group of network of installers and there's many groups in the tile industry, but this group stands out because all we advocate for is helping each other out and education. And I basically do like what you do in the shed industry. So, when I met you, I was like this guy does exactly like what I do, but with sheds how much cooler. And then I got you know. Well, we'll get back to that.

Jeremy:

But I got my wife involved in it years ago and I've got cleaned up and turned my life around and uh had to fire all my help because they weren't good. You know supporters of my sobriety, you know. So, I got to get rid of all them guys and I told my wife she was going to come to work with me. And uh, bathmatic is my company Bathmatic Custom Tile and Shower and uh, luminesce is one of my brands and uh, uh, I got her involved and now she's involved in the industry, going to trade shows with me, has her own podcast for women in tile and all that good stuff. She won a rock star award and woman crafts woman of the year. Uh, we're going April down to Orlando to cover and tile show for that ceremony, but, uh, but basically, yeah, I'm just, you know, an advocate for education. I set tile, I sell the products to do it. Uh, I can hook you up with contractors anywhere in the United States. I know that. I got a database of contractors and I'm a designer, a plumber, a craftsman, a stone mason, all those things by trade. So that got me into the industry.

Jeremy:

But I just admire what you guys have built here. I don't want to dive deep into it yet, but what I've seen with your industry is it's made me go back and tell my buddies and colleagues hey, we need to step it up. You don't realize how far behind we are compared to these guys. These guys, they just sell sheds and barns and chicken coops and they deliver them and it's cool. You know, I mean they're and, uh, it's, it's touched my heart to see how you guys come together, you know, and uh, it's that.

Jeremy:

You know, I've had Johnny Stolfus here with me last week and he believes that I'm gonna be in the shed industry. You know, he thinks, he thinks that I'm gonna be done in the tile industry, uh, and I'm gonna be merging over to a new industry. So, he, you know, he told me a lot of things, you know, about what he thought we was doing and it brought, you know, it brought a heartfelt sense to me, you know. And what better guy to have than Sam Byler with me? So you know, I'm like, well, we delivered a lot of sheds up here, you know, and I'm looking at the sheds and the way that they're built and you know different concepts and things and I'm looking, you know, I'm an innovator, I like the design and uh, you know, I like, I like to cultivate something that could help the industry, if I want to contribute to whatever I'm involved in.

Sam:

Yep.

Jeremy:

But that's just a little bit about me, but I'm blessed to be here.

Sam:

I thank God every day that I met you Sam. Yeah, tell me just a little bit about your Tools in Schools program.

Jeremy:

Well Put Tools was, uh, was developed in in 2022, uh, by a good friend of mine, Ray Terry, and uh, we also have a radio show called about your house on fox sports radio Saturday mornings. I'm a co-host there, so, uh, I've been out of it. I've done one show since the storm.

Sam:

And since the storm, nothing counts right now.

Jeremy:

I know. But you know I got into that with Ray and Ray had this good vision. He's like you know, the trades are lost. You're a tradesman, you're an advocate for safety. He's like you lost your limb to a power saw accident. He's like you need to be involved. So, I got to thinking how I could incorporate myself into it. So, we develop, put tools in schools to go into local high schools to basically go in in front of a career day where they're pushing college, college, college, military, more military, and you'll get lifeguards and the medical stuff that comes through there. But the trades are very small.

Jeremy:

The trucking industry is bigger than the trades oh yeah and we've seen that, like you know, Bowman and these freight companies, Swift drivers. That's where they get them Swift drivers at.

Jeremy:

They come from the recruitings. They recruit them kids and then they take them off. But when them kids go to that career day they see the trades and when they come through that door and I've got a plumbing company, an electrical company, a brick company and then our tile company and you know all these different cool things and we got all of our tools out there. That's where Put Tools in Schools was kind of born, because when we come in they don't go to talk to the college people. They want to play with drills and hammers and cut and lay bricks and glue together, wire stuff up. I gotta have the led lights out there with the low voltage, showing them the, the, you know the circuitry and all that and how our drivers and everything work. Uh and it, it took off. So, uh, we go into about, uh, about 25 to 35 high schools and middle schools and do career days and we do apprenticeship programs as well. And Jennifer, she is part of, she Built this City. It's a foundation for women and girls, young girls. It's getting into the trades. That let women know that they are a value in the trades. So I just kind of fell right into that. You know, letting women score and snap and cut tile and play with my tools. I've been doing it all my life, you know I want them to learn, so you know that's how we got involved in that put tools in schools. But it's a great movement and I've been slacked off on it. But you know, next year is going to be huge for us.

Jeremy:

Uh, just try to do that and also work with uh, veterans, amputees and recovering addicts. Um, I've been counseling with people for years and helping people and I fought my way through an amputation and through addiction to come out the other side and still have a positive attitude. And uh, God keeps putting me in, in the, in there to fight and fight and for to be able to relate to other people is the mission, you know. So now I work with the storm victims. You know we're fighting depression and suicide and all up here. And uh, you know it's just like every day, the Lord, he'll challenge me, he'll challenge me with something just about like what I messaged you with the other earlier. You know what I mean and she just had to go, you know. But anyway, not to ramble on. I believe that what we're doing is what we're led to be doing and it's our purpose and we've worked our whole lives. What is this small sacrifice to take off of work and to do this?

Jeremy:

And I just admire you for it, Sam.

Sam:

Yeah, I definitely feel like I have found a. I used to use the word kindred spirit. I don't know if you grew up, if you ever read Anne of Green Gables or a lot of our listeners would have read those, those books growing up. And Anne of Green Gables she talks about kindred spirits. Like when you find a kindred spirit, we know what they are. But you're a kindred warrior, amen, we're. We. We're out here battling and you are a kindred warrior.

Sam:

You're willing to step up, you're willing to do something about it?

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Sam:

I just got one more thing about tools for school. So, some people don't get to watch us on YouTube on here. They just listen to us as they're going through their day, and if they're on the phone call in line, we have a call in line too, so they can't see what you're talking about. As far as being an amputee, but you're missing. You're missing an arm. Well, not an arm, you always need an arm, it's just a hand missing.

Jeremy:

I was 23 years old and I had a chop saw accident building bathrooms. Years old and I had a chop saw accident building bathrooms. Uh and uh, I basically got my jacket caught into a, uh, a 12 inch compound slider. Miter saw and uh, I was cutting a small return for a piece of crown molding and it was about three, four o'clock in the morning when I ought to have been in bed and uh, you know got my jacket caught in there and uh one thing led to the next.

Jeremy:

Uh, I went through three or four surgeries. They couldn't save it, they had to cut it all the way off. I went immediately back to work. I was doing storm drainage work and irrigation work and I was running my butt. My skid steer and the joysticks pulled this open and, uh, my bone was exposed and lost more blood and had to get it stitched up. And I've got prosthetics and stuff and I'm just, I'm better off. I'll use prosthetic when I'm threading a sewing machine or when I'm holding the punch to put a rifle together.

Jeremy:

That's it that's all I needed before, but uh, but yeah, you know, I lost my left hand at 23 years old. I'm 24 years old and I'm 38 years old now, so you know it's been a hard recovery. But what don't kill you, make you stronger.

Sam:

Thank you, it sure does, and you handle it very well. We joke with you a lot about it. I'm glad we're able to you take it very well. We're constantly asking you if you need a hand. But, dude, you have learned so well how to I don't want to say get along with it, you've learned how to succeed with it. There's a difference. Some people learn how to get along with what they've got going on. They adjust and they get through life. You are not one bit happy doing that. You succeed at what you're doing, like Aaron and I. You know, Aaron, to see you run a track hole, you know, and you just move that little handle around like it ain't nothing even to it. It's great.

Jeremy:

It saved my life. It saved my life, Sam. It made me a better man. It really did, I wouldn't be who I am today without the struggle.

Sam:

And I'm thankful. Yeah, you mentioned addictions. What do you know about addictions?

Jeremy:

Well, I spent about 10, 12 years in active addiction crystal meth. Uh, I smoked a lot of meth and uh run wild for many, many years. I never was at without anything, my family never suffered, nobody suffered, except for my wife not having me in the bed beside her, and I run the roads and, uh, that's how I got into tile work. You know what I mean because I used to work for Darden. I used to take care of all the longhorns and cheddars. If you beat a longhorn and cheddars, more likely I plumbed the place.

Jeremy:

Oh wow, Wow. I worked the night shifts and I would run 7, 10, 15 days on the road and they knew they was like. They said you get Crashmatic out there, he'll run the road for you. They said he'll go from one job to the next job. I like to drive and I stayed on the road all the time and Jennifer's really the only one that really had a had a real issue with it. But all many years, or years, it just, you know, it took me down a spiral, fighting depression and uh, supplying that with the drugs and uh, the alcohol and um it, it pushed me to a place in my life where I wasn't healthy, uh, I wasn't the man that I should be. And God delivered me in 2020 and October 15th, not by my own will, but you know it was. It was a hard landing. I've just, I've been clean ever since and I've been committed to doing the best I can for myself, but not only myself, but to show others to be a beacon of light.

Sam:

You know, oh, man, you not only myself, but to show others to be a beacon of light. You know, oh man, you have Most times. You know, I don't even want to ask people about you know their past or their addictions or whatever, but you have succeeded so well at it that I want, I want people to know we're going to get into this later and we're going to talk about hope. It's just a given. You and I can't sit down and have a conversation without talking about hope. And this, to me, is just a tremendous message of hope to people out there who have friends, who have sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins. There is hope for crystal meth people Because, dude, I hear it every day, every day.

Sam:

I hear it on social media, I hear it in phone calls to me. You know it's ironic that I started this whole storm disaster thing, fighting depression and suicide, and look who I got. You show up and I hear this every day that those people are beyond help. You cannot help somebody who's on crystal meth. You can't help somebody that's addicted to the wrong kind of drugs. You can help other people. They'll talk about that, but they pretty much just wag their head sadly and they're like there's no hope for them. And I'm the ever optimistic guy when it comes to giving people hope and where they're at in life. Um, I can be a pessimist about some other stuff. That's fine, but you, you are a living, breathing, fantastic example of somebody that can get past it yeah well, I mean it took me a long time, Sam.

Jeremy:

It was a struggle. I got a buddy to tell you. He said he picked me up 102 times and I always asked him I said why you keep helping me? He said because if I do it 102 and I quit and you never get better. It was all in vain yeah, if I did 103 times and you turned out the way you turned out. It was all worth okay, uh, it's powerful real. That set real with me

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Sam:

people used to beg me.

Jeremy:

They begged me. Man, I passed my statute of limitations now, but I wore U-Haul out back in the day. I wore U-Haul out, I'd set up shop, I'd work six months out of the year and actually go and do tile work, do plumbing work and run jobs and do things like I'm supposed to do the rest of the time. I said no, no, no, we're going to go play with U-Haul again. We're going to run a million dollars through U-Haul.

Jeremy:

You know what I mean, and we do it. I mean I'd sell motor swaps and beds and truck parts. I mean I'm a scrap man from way back. I turn wrenches, I can wire stuff, plumb stuff.

Jeremy:

I can do it all about like you are.

Jeremy:

I ain't never built no stretch trucks, though that fascinated me. But I've got LS swap vehicles. I've done diesel swap stuff. I'm a 12-valve guru and an LS guru.

Sam:

I love them all.

Jeremy:

I just turned my life around at a point in time where my kids, they needed me. And once I turned my life around and I started building bathmatic and Jennifer got on there with me and I become this wonderful guy in the tile industry and people was like, oh, look at the one hand cup man, this guy builds bathrooms with his wife. And I started getting that I realized God showed me how far he brought me and that give me something in my spirit where I said, well, if I'm out here now and I'm doing this good and everybody's gonna see my face I'm gonna be real good at, because I've never been there before. I never had that.

Sam:

Word.

Jeremy:

Yeah, I had that hope. So, it's like if I can turn one person's idea of their self around while I'm here in these mountains, like I've already have, I've got a lady come to me today. She's like Jeremy, I've got two and a half months. She said I was 11 years old the last time I was sober.

Jeremy:

She's 40 years old. She'll be three months sober in the next few weeks and I told her what that meant to me. She's down there living in one of our sheds you know where she's at but almost three months and I'm like man, like man Lord, why me? I come to the back of this cabin every night, I asked her. I said why me, Lord? Why me? I got oh, I got buddies that tell me hey, you need to calm it down. They're gonna put you on the news before it's over with and everybody's gonna see you. I said well, it's all right, I'm past statute of limitation, I said. I said I'm at the point of time in life where I want everybody to know because they can see what Jesus will do for you and what hope will do for you.

Jeremy:

You know, and I'm raggedly and rough as anybody. You know, a couple hours ago, before I sent you that message, I was looking for gas and matches and wrote and stuff. I didn't know what I was going to do. I had to pray for 30 minutes. You saved me when you sent that message you sent me. He's got the law on his side. You know, I did. I mean, I hate to touch on that, but I'm going to go ahead and touch on it. 20-year-old girl we give her a shed.

Jeremy:

She's pregnant Two weeks after she gets her shed. She gives birth to the baby. She brings the baby home, put the bassinet in the shed. I never in my life would ever imagine it to see that I've seen it and I took her everything and put it over there.

Jeremy:

And uh, when I got that, that message today that she's having to relocate her shed, so I need a hauler to come back in there. And I've already got. It costs 600 plus dollars to get the electrical connected, to buy material and all that trenching to run that line, that mclean and them done, and uh, here it is. God's still telling me just to replace the shed, replace the electrical, replace everything.

Jeremy:

Because I'm too vulnerable to go over there and get involved with this guy, because I don't know what I'll do to him Now. You know a 20 year old girl. He's a 50 something year old man. She's got a three week old baby in there. He comes in there and sexually abuses Yep. Now she's got to move the shed off the property.

Sam:

Yeah.

Jeremy:

Her mother called me. She's ashamed to call Yep. I don't know what to do except for beg a shed hauler. Yeah, beg a shed hauler to come and help us again. Go in there, cut the wire, pull it out. He said we got, you know, 72 hours to move it. So, what's the hope of getting? A 72-hour hauler in here.

Sam:

No, no, no. If he said we can get it, then we'll get it. It's just when I said he's got the law on his side, I meant that we have to get him to agree to let us move the shed. But if he's verbally done that, we'll get the shed, don't worry about it.

Jeremy:

Well, he's done that, he'll let us get the shed. Yeah, yeah, no, it's the fact of the good Lord keeping me humble not to go over there and get the shed and then punish the feller. But I don't live like that no more. You know what I mean I know, um.

Sam:

We had another conversation earlier this week not we, as in you and I, me and another guy, um and I told him. I said I can't mention his name because some people on here will know who I'm talking about, but I told him. I said you're not going to do me any good in jail. That's. The only reason I'm not in jail right now is because I won't do anybody any good in jail. Because there's a couple people up there I'm pretty much I feel the same way you do about. It's crazy, one of the catches.

Sam:

I'm getting ahead of our story here, but it doesn't matter because we, we don't care, but one of the things to us putting all these sheds out there, especially the ones where people were renting in apartments, in campers, whatever, and they did not own property. When we set that shed on somebody else's property, 99 of the law says that's his shed his property.

Jeremy:

Now his property comes off that trailer.

Sam:

Yep, the minute it comes off that trailer. That's why I tell guys in the shed industry all the time do not drop that shed unless you've got all your ducks in line, that you know exactly what's going on. It's the same way when we go pick them up back up again on their rto. You know retrievals or whatever. Get that shed on the trailer and then you've got some ability. Um, because as long as it's on their property, nine, nine percent of the time the law is on their side. I don't care if you're right or wrong, it doesn't matter, that's just the way it works. We'll handle that. If that's the case, it just shows us the desperation of these people. You know what this hurts. I was going to make a post this afternoon based on a text message I got today that I probably could go back through my phone and I know I can come up with a dozen. I could probably come up with two dozen text messages where I have storm victims that are in abusive relationships. Just because a storm hits does not mean that abuse stops.

Jeremy:

And I've had a lady today that said there is a case worker that's involved with some society around here and what she specializes in is sex trafficking post-disaster.

Sam:

Wow, post-disaster.

Jeremy:

Post-disaster sex trafficking therapy.

Sam:

That's when it's vulnerable. I can see that.

Jeremy:

This girl that we're talking about here she was in a bad spot with that little baby and not having a place to put her shed. She lived down here at D&D by the trailer park. They got washed out.

Jeremy:

That was another big topic of our meeting. Today I come to get educated on who it is that owns it. The old man died before the storm. He left the property to his autistic son that's his only source of income and he forfeited his disability for autism so he could have that property and be able to reap the benefits. The rent and all of it's gone, and now, because he's, nobody wants to help him.

Sam:

You're kidding.

Jeremy:

And then Buncombe County is pushing him about the road in and out of there, yeah, where he's going to put the road and he has no money, and they're basically going to force him out of there, force the property to have nothing and he'll have to sell.

Sam:

Well, he'd raise the whole thing like six feet up, wouldn't he?

Jeremy:

yeah, yeah well that's another thing that they spoke about is all the flood plains and what they're saying about changing yeah, they're changing all that and just like what the preacher up here went through, uh, with his lot up, I mean, there's just a lot going on and you know all that meeting with this new group is something else. They're wanting to bring in all kinds of resources Tim Burleson and I was there, and Nick Heitschall, the guy from Camp Unity, he's involved in it and they're all wanting to come down here to Bernardsville and none of them have no idea what they're wanting to do or what they can do or how they can do it. And then they all find out they're like, well, here's Jeremy, he's already got infrastructure, he's got everything. I was like I didn't do all this, God did it. I said, but we got it and, uh, this is what we got to have and what we got to do. And, uh, they're interested in helping. But I don't. I don't pay attention to nobody saying that until they show up I hate.

Sam:

um, I get accused. I get accused of being rude. Um, I've had quite a few people tell me that even my facebook posts they're rude. Um, because of I mean, we're getting to be to where we're like some of the victims in the fact that we're like, yeah, well, once you show up I'll actually do something. You know, I've got victims that we show up with their shed and they just they're like I can't believe you actually showed up. I had a dozen people tell me they were bringing me stuff, bringing me stuff. Tiffany, her 17-year-old daughter, actually left the property when Marlon was on the way out there with the shed because she did not want to see her mama heartbroken again when nobody showed up. That's crazy, but we see it. We see it every day, everybody's looking down, down, except for us.

Sam:

And then I get messages all the time, you know, from well-meaning other. You know other people up there that are working hard and they're like here, call this guy and I'm like, I'm not calling him. He can show up and show me what he's going to do and I'm getting to be as bad as some of the. I call them victims. I don't like to call them that. They're survivors because they're going through it. I hate using the term victims as much as you know. I hate when people are on the inside from being locked up from something. I don't call them prisoners. They're still people. They're my people, my church people. Most of my best church people are on the inside. They're human beings just like everybody else, and that's the way we got to look at these.

Sam:

The difference is in Barnardsville, a small area of Micahsville, we're working, and Old Fort Nebo, we're dealing with people that are poor and they were poor. They made poor decisions. They've had poor life choices long before the storm came. That doesn't make any difference and we got into it. Today A driver called me up and says hey, I'm here, you know, to give these people their shed and the neighbor's yelling and screaming at me and I end up having to talk to the neighbor down, you know, and it's like you know, and then another neighbor shows up and it's like no, I don't care, you know, you don't, you don't understand those people you know and these are legit storm victims, you know that lost everything down in old Ford on the river.

Sam:

Um, they might've not had much and they might've been struggling in life, it doesn't matter. Um, and then you move them to a property where somebody's like hey, you know what, I got 10 acres out here. If you want to put a shed out here until you figure out where you're going or what you're doing in life, you go right ahead. Well, it upsets the neighbors, I don't care, um, and I tell them, guys, I'm like look, we're doing the best we can. If you need something, I would help you. That that's right, you would. And I'm like, yeah, it's not my choice. Who I help? If you need help, I'm here to help, and it totally kind of takes the fire out of them. You.

Jeremy:

I stood up in there and talked tonight and then another local pastor stood up across the room and he said you see Jeremy over there. He said that man has fixed homelessness in our community Him and Sam. They've not only fixed the community as people that needed a shelter or a place to stay, but they've cured homelessness. Have you noticed? There isn't anybody in tents anywhere around here? No more. And I was amen.

Sam:

Yeah.

Jeremy:

I said, hey, and I've been persecuted by half the people in that room that said, why are you helping them? They were drug addicts, they were poor before the storm. And then Tim looks at me and grins because he's one of the guys that said it in the beginning. Well, you shouldn't help them. They're drug addicts. They were poor before the storm. I was like Tim. I'm an old drug addict too. I was just like them.

Sam:

What I don't understand what better way we can have to give someone. I did an episode with a guy that's just as popular in the shed industry as I am, Richard Miller. You haven't had the opportunity to meet him yet. You will you stick around long enough. He's a real close friend of mine. Richard did an episode with me a couple of weeks ago. It ended up being a two part episode, which this one probably will do.

Sam:

What you're doing is you're giving people hope and I'm like would you who, who better to help and give hope to? Now? I'm not. I'm not. I'm not a uh, what's the word I'm looking for. I'm not a respecter of people. I'll get if, if, if a millionaire got hit by his house and he needs a place to stay warm for a while, I'll give him a shed. I don't care. But it doesn't mean that I'm not going to give the guy that's been struggling his whole life and has been living on the corner down there and everything he owned, including his 67 car that had all the serial numbers, everything matched numbers on it went down the river. That's all the man owned. I'm still going to give him a shed. I cannot ask for a better opportunity to minister to somebody than somebody that's in that position.

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Jeremy:

I've gotten to where I had a lady call me from what is it? Nam, N-A-M or whatever, the other day and she said well, well, I don't understand why you're still working in buncombe county. I believe you and Sam are wasting your time in buncombe county because there's no need for sheds down there. She said what's? She said who's in charge of your vetting department? Who vets your stuff? I said can you hear me? Can you hear me? I'm going over a mountain, I'm losing you. Click. I've done it to donors.

Jeremy:

I had a guy that donated $1,000 a month, pledging $1,000 a month since the beginning of the storm. He called me up and he sent me two pictures of where I was talking about earlier the girl down there. He said if these are the kind of places you're going to put sheds, somebody in Barnersville sent me these pictures, said these are local drug addicts and uh, prostitution, uh houses across the street. If you're going to help them kind of people, I'm not going to give you a thousand dollars, no more. I said how many months did you send me a thousand dollars? Would you like me to send you your money back? Yeah, I said, but don't send me no more money.

Jeremy:

I said I'm gonna stroke you a check from Mathematic and pay your money back. And he's like no, that's not the point. But I'm telling you that I'm not going to support you and I'm going to tell other people not to support you because you're out here helping the people that don't need help. I said that's fine. If that's the people that's wanting to help me, I don't need your help.

Jeremy:

You know, what I mean.

Sam:

I don't need it.

Jeremy:

I, I don't need it. I just got to where I hang up on them, called rude. Well, they told me. They said we'd much rather deal with Sam. I said well.

Sam:

Oh, that's the best joke I've ever heard. I felt honored.

Jeremy:

I felt honored. I'm like Sam's good, I'm like if I can outdo him.

Sam:

I want this episode to go down as the what do you call it? The pendant of my episodes. I need an episode sponsored by Bathematics that proves that. Oh, because everybody listening on there is like man, man, you don't know that guy. Very good, that guy will put you in your place in a heartbeat, that's it I mean, and I, you know it is like you know since the beginning.

Jeremy:

you know I think the little bit of strife that we do get is minute to the amount of hope that we do deliver and the good and the positive that comes out. And I don't even let it faze me I used to let it bother me what the people in the community said, because I've dove deep into this community. You know, being on the farm here and trying to put things together, you know, and living from Mr. David Carson's perspective, you know, with this farm and everything that he's done for me, I try to look through his eyes and his vision and I just hope and pray to God that I don't get 75 years old and get all my life and everything in order and nothing take it away like it has his yes, I couldn't imagine you know let's talk about that a little bit, because you bringing that up brings us up to the fact of where you were when you first ran into our organization.

Sam:

You didn't run into me for a while, no, you randomly showed up on one of my haulers videos and I'm like who is this cat and what does he think? What does he think he's doing?

Jeremy:

Well, it's a funny thing. I wanted to get to that. Uh, you know I've done the chainsaw work. I spent the first couple days running, you know, ground ops for operation helo and, uh, you know, being a gi joe and a ground op guy, I was out my side by side, my rifle and my satellite phone and my night vision and infrared and all that and I'm out there searching. But I was, you know, rebuked from the cajun navy, uh, because they said I was vigilant. Uh, we found the remains of a of a girl's foot and they wanted to go over face or TikTok live. They were going to go, TikTok live. They were joking and they're like, if I had a foot, I wonder where the rest of her is. And I basically lost it and went off on them, knocked their phones out of their hands, got in a fight with two second recon, third recon soldiers, operation Afghanistan heroes, you know, decorated war medal honored heroes. I'm out there swinging a two-by-four around like a ninja turtle, like a what In a fight?

Jeremy:

So, you know, they tried to attack me, they tried to team up on me. So, you know, and I was outnumbered so I had to do what I had to do and I got run out of Pensacola and I had some buddies that come up here to back me up. They were ex-combat guys as well. They come over here and we started doing chainsaw work. We met Tim Burleson. Well, and then when I met Tim Burleson, I met Alan Bowles, the man that owns the trucking company here with the rock equipment he's like listen.

Jeremy:

He said, uh, leave all you buddies right here. I got to take you down the road. I want to show you something he's like. I got you a place where you set you up a base camp and, uh, he brought us down here and he introduced me to Mr. Carson wow at that point in time.

Jeremy:

He's like you don't work for tim, no more. He's like you work for me. He's like you need anything in this community. He's like I'll give it to you. He said nobody want to admit it, but I'm the mayor of this town.

Jeremy:

He said he'll say there's nothing, move around here without me knowing it. And after a while I figured out he's definitely got more money than anybody. So, he'd become a good friend of mine and he introduced me to Mr. Carson and that first day I had 22 guys with me. We had 16 trucks, 16 trailers, 16 machines and bobcats and everybody had a side-by-side and a piece of heavy equipment.

Jeremy:

Yep, and we'd come in here and we was working with Tim going up and down the creeks, helping Alan and Tim out in the creeks. You know, and I'd done that for several weeks and I worked up back and forth, you know, green Mountain, red Hill, went into Swannanoa and everything and done all that. Well, after I tore my trailer and my truck and you know you got, you know, your whole rigs tore up.

Jeremy:

You get all your equipment towed off the side of the mountain. I got in my side-by-side, I rode into Barnardsville, went down there and ate me a hamburger at D&D and I didn't talk to nobody because they was like, well, what's wrong with you? I was like I got a $40,000 trailer tore into pieces and a truck that won't shift gears or go nowhere. I said I'm just going to go home. I think this is done and I went home and I come back. I went home on a Sunday night and I sat there. By Monday night I was down at the airport renting a truck and I said I'm going back up there, so I took off back up here.

Jeremy:

Then I got back up here. I had some off-grid jobs. It was way up on a mountain.

Jeremy:

I got power back established and got them water back established fixed a couple wells and stuff and I was running out of money and I said I pulled up back up here to the farm and, Mr. David Carson, he said where you been at. He said he said I thought you done quit. He said we need to build some tiny houses. He said I got this woman back here in my camper. He said I ain't even paid for this camper yet. He said the man, just let me take it to look at it to see if I wanted it. He parked it here and he said now I got this woman living in it with her son and he's like we got to get her out of there. And uh, he said, now I got this woman living in it with her son and uh, he's like we got to get her out of there. And uh, he said and then my other neighbor over here is living in her minivan out back and I, he's like we got to build some houses. And I said, well, when you want to start? And he said, whenever you can get some people together, I'm like, well, I ain't got no people. Everybody, everybody, I'm by myself this week. And uh, I said I'm going to buy lumber, I'll start building one.

Jeremy:

So, me and the farmer's son, Cal and Redbeard. We got out here and we built the first two decks and we didn't have no idea how to build this shed. I didn't build them, nothing like we build them now. You know what I mean. You seen them. You seen me while.

Jeremy:

I was doing it and I got in deep and I had no idea how I was going to deliver the sheds. I had only the money that the church had given me and what was left my personal money. I was like I can build 10 sheds. I can build 10 sheds and I can go home. I can feel satisfied. Tim kept telling me hey, you need to talk to Sam. Uh, and what was the lady's name? That was uh, she had a funny name. Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's like you need to call her. I was like I ain't got time to call neither one of them. People, I'm busy working. I'm out here working and uh, we was just grinding, you know. And he showed up one day and he said Tim told me, he said you're going to see something today that's going to change your perspective on this whole thing. And Amos and Alvin Lineker.

Sam:

Yep.

Jeremy:

Obviously Amos and Alvin. Everybody knows who they are, the rad dudes, best of the best. I loved them from the day I met them. Uh, they showed up with that load I think they had.

Jeremy:

they had eight on the big semi and then they had they had three on the on the pickup truck and uh, they had you know their English or white guy driver, American, whatever you know regular, and they were both riding. I'm like, who are these Amish guys? And I was just fascinated about it. And they're like you work for Sam, you work for Sam. I'm like, no, I don't even know Sam. I'm like I'm just here at this farm, this farmer, let me use this farm. I'm building sheds back here and then they come back there and they get a kick out of it. I'm trying to build sheds. You know what I mean. And uh, I was like I made a video about it. I was like at the point in time, I was like I gotta start showing people what's going on up here, so I made a video and then, uh, it was about a couple days later.

Jeremy:

You showed up, yeah and um, everything's history after that. I mean, it was like God sent you. Everybody says you're an angel, Sam, but I, I, I believe that you're. You're more than an angel, you know, I mean a disciple, you know. I mean, uh, because you brought me right in and, uh, we, uh, we were meant to work together. I didn't know that, I didn't know what I was going to do, but when you told me that you was going to do 100,.

Jeremy:

I was like well, I got to do more than 10. And then here we are, people ask me all the time Mr. Carl tells everybody we'll be at a restaurant, they'll say you're them guys that build a tank down. Yep, we're going. Our goal is 1,000. We're going to build a thousand. I'm like Mr. Carl, you gotta stop telling everybody that uh you know, I I don't even count, no more. You know, I think it's over 600. I told everybody tonight I was like I'm sure we broke 600 I got.

Sam:

I got a rolling number going in my head. Yet that kind of keeps me online a little bit and every once in a while I'll back up and check it based off of that. So, I kind of know where I'm at. But it's like uh, at this at this point it's, it's not a well. It's never been about the number. The hundred to start with was to make the basic, and it wasn't even a hundred. It was 50 donated sheds and we were going to raise enough money to build 50. So it was 50-50 to get to 100. And we had the 100 donated sheds within 24 hours done 24 hours is all.

Sam:

It took really Four hours to get 100 donated sheds. Verbally Took about three weeks, three and a half weeks to get them all brought in and to get them delivered and set up. But we did 100 the first month and it's been crazy ever since. It's just been oh, look at that, you fixed it.

Jeremy:

I figured I'd do it. I love looking at my niches, but I didn't want to look at them. You know what I?

Sam:

mean You're at carson's farm in the cabin yep, I'm here in the cabin.

Jeremy:

This is the cabin. This is Mr. David Carson's cabin. He built this when he come back from up Maryland when he finally decided to settle here, where he the farm he grew up on, he built this cabin. And these beams that's in the ceiling here and these cleats that are on the wall there they are from tobacco barn where he used to hang tobacco as a boy. Yeah, so when he tore that tobacco barn down, he brought these posts over here and built this cabin and the wood stove and everything. It's just real cowboy stuff over here, you know, uh it's a it's a little strange.

Sam:

You're actually across the river from the farm the river that hammered and you'd have to go through the river because the bridge hasn't been rebuilt yet exactly, the bridge is blowed out.

Jeremy:

So, I drive through the river in that rental truck and them new fords. They don't have grease fitting. So, I done washed all the grease out of this one. I've been driving for a month. I keep going back to rent more trucks and they're like you, better keep that truck. We're gonna have to give you an expedition or a suburban this week, I'm like.

Jeremy:

So, I keep the old six-cylinder ford out here, the power boost, but it is, uh, about two and a half foot deep right now. It comes up on the running boards. You ain't gonna. It's not on the tires, it's on the running boards. Uh and uh, I basically tear the front air dams off all these rental trucks and before I take them back I have to unbolt them so they don't know they were there and, uh, I'll turn them in. But besides the point, this creek house was saved. The water come up about 15 foot away from the front porch out here. Uh, I'll show you one day. The water just stopped. But if the water would have ran up about another 10, 15 foot, it would have flooded his house out.

Sam:

Wow, Thank you all for listening to today's episode.

Sam:

This was part one of a two-part episode, so be sure to listen next week to finish today's podcast